


Acceptance

by flaming_muse



Category: Glee
Genre: Episode Related, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-14
Updated: 2015-03-14
Packaged: 2018-03-17 20:19:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3542540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flaming_muse/pseuds/flaming_muse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The letter is thin, like it’s a single sheet of paper contained in the slim white envelope.</p>
<p>set between 6x10 (“The Rise and Fall of Sue Sylvester”) and 6x11 (“We Built This Glee Club”), with spoilers for but absolutely none beyond 6x11</p>
            </blockquote>





	Acceptance

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about the new blazers for the Glee Club,” Kurt says, waiting as Blaine pulls the mail out of their mailbox in the dingy lobby of their apartment building. He sounds more amused than upset, with a layer of proud amazement beneath it all that makes Blaine’s heart swell as he locks the metal door with the little key he has on his keychain.

“I wanted to surprise everyone,” Blaine replies, nodding for Kurt to precede him up the stairs. The stairwell still smells like old cheese or feet after whatever it was that their downstairs neighbor cooked on Saturday night, but Blaine’s heart rises even so. This tiny, uninspired apartment might have been the best one they could find on such short notice after their impromptu wedding, but it’s still _theirs_. There’s something about walking up the stairs with Kurt again to _their_ home that makes him happy every time, no matter how it smells.

“You certainly did,” Kurt says over his shoulder with a smile that’s wide enough to make his eyes crinkle.

Blaine smiles back as he sorts through the mail. “Besides, it was something I felt like I could contribute to the team.” A few catalogs, the electric bill - A slim envelope stops him in his tracks, halfway up the stairs.

“What do you mean?” Kurt asks. “You contribute to the team every day. You didn’t have to prove that by overhauling our costumes alone. I would have been willing to help; it’s fashion, after all, and - “

“Kurt,” Blaine says, his voice shaky and low, but it’s enough to make Kurt stop talking and notice that Blaine isn’t following him anymore.

Kurt turns back toward him. “What?” he asks. He takes a step down. “What is it?”

Blaine can’t look up from the letter in his hand. His eyes fixed on the return address on its upper left corner, he holds it out so Kurt can see it, too. “It’s from NYU.”

“Oh.” The word is a puff of air, and the world around them stops for a weighty moment, like everything is holding its breath. Then Kurt gestures up the stairs. “Let’s - “

Blaine nods and follows after him to their apartment, his heart pounding so hard in his ears that he can’t hear their footsteps.

This is it.

As soon as their front door is closed, Kurt hooks his bag on the coat rack and pulls Blaine over to their tiny kitchen table. Blaine sinks into one of the flea market chairs, setting the letter flat in front of him. Kurt reaches across the table to take his hands, the letter between them.

The letter from NYU is thin, like it’s a single sheet of paper contained in the slim white envelope.

Blaine can feel the blood draining from his face, the sound of the refrigerator going distant in his ears. It has to be a bad sign, he thinks. The letter is thin. Ohio State’s acceptance packet had been thick. It has to be a rejection.

“Blaine,” Kurt tells him, his hands a tight anchor on Blaine’s, “no matter what it says, we will figure it out, okay? We’re in this together.”

Blaine feels like he’s going to be sick, and he closes his eyes for a moment in despair as he nods. He’d thought - He’d hoped -

“We can be long distance for a semester or a year or all of college,” Kurt says. “You can apply to other schools in New York for next year. You can work instead. Whatever you want. Whatever _we_ want. You’re my husband. I love you.”

Blaine nods again, and he feels his fingers shake in Kurt’s grasp. “I love you, too,” he says, and while he’s incredibly grateful for the open reassurances, he hates that he knows Kurt’s giving them to him because he’s seen the same thin envelope and has come to the same conclusions.

Blaine just wants to _succeed_. He wants to get his life right. He doesn’t want to fail again.

He doesn’t want to fail in front of Kurt, not because he thinks Kurt will love him less, not because he thinks Kurt will think he made the wrong decision marrying him, but because Blaine wants to give them the future they both want, the one where they live together and chase dreams together and have kids together and... he wants to succeed in that future, together, with Kurt, not long distance in different cities for college or making do with whatever job he can get in New York or stuck in this tiny little apartment in Lima coaching a glee club while his husband and friends move on.

He wants to go to the right college this time, one where he can explore lots of interests with lots of different kinds of people and find what truly suits him best. Maybe it will still be performing and music, but maybe it won’t be. He wants to find out.

He wants what he and Kurt have always dreamed of. He wants _everything_. He wants it so much he can taste it. He wants it for himself, and he wants it for Kurt. He wants to help them achieve it instead of holding them back.

And this thin white envelope in front of him holds, if not the final answer to how he’s going to be able to make those dreams happen for them both, at least _an_ answer. If he gets in to NYU, it’s easy for all of the pieces to fall back into place. It’s easy to step back onto that road, the one where they’re married and chasing their dreams in the greatest city in the world.

If he doesn’t... he’ll just have to work harder to give them the future they both want. That’s all he can do.

Kurt’s thumb rubs gently against Blaine’s wedding band and across his knuckles, and it’s the final bit of reassurance Blaine needs to take a deep breath, pull away, and pick up the envelope.

“Here we go,” he murmurs, and he tells himself firmly that they have lots of options. This rejection doesn’t mean his life is over. It’s just one door being shut; he’s not being kept away from his happy future for good. When he was cut from NYADA after he and Kurt broke up, he’d felt hopeless and unable to picture what could possibly come next, but this is not the same thing at all. It’s only _one_ door shut.

He slides his thumb under the flap and rips open the letter. It’s a single folded sheet of paper with only a few typed paragraphs on it.

It doesn’t take him long to read them.

He starts over and reads them again.

He draws in a shuddering breath, his eyes swimming as he reads the letter a third time.

“Is it in Latin? Is it in Morse code?” Kurt asks, nearly vibrating in his chair across from him. “What does it _say_ , Blaine?”

Blaine looks up at him, and he doesn’t even know how to smile. He can’t figure out how to make the muscles work. “I got in,” he says, numb with shock for a second longer before his joy bursts out of him, and _oh_ , that’s how he smiles, yes. “I got in,” he says again with a laugh. “I was accepted to NYU.”

Kurt’s chair nearly topples over as he rushes around the table and throws himself into Blaine’s arms.

Blaine doesn’t remember getting to his feet, but he catches Kurt against him and squeezes him so hard it hurts his chest. His eyes sting, his heart pounds, and he _can’t believe he got in_. He didn’t fail. He didn’t fail them.

“This is amazing!” Kurt tells him, pulling back just far enough to be able to see his face. He’s absolutely radiant as his hands stroke over Blaine’s shoulders. “NYU! Blaine! Everything is falling into place!”

“Yeah,” Blaine says hoarsely. He can barely think, he’s so overcome with happiness. NYU, New York, Kurt. He has his whole life ahead of him again, the life he wanted. Maybe there were some detours, maybe he’s not sure of exactly what he wants to do, but he gets to go _back_ and do it all right.

Kurt’s hands flutter up off Blaine’s shoulders, and he takes a little step backwards, looking worried. “I know I said we’d make anything work,” he says in a rush, studying Blaine’s face like it’s a puzzle he needs to figure out, “but you do still want New York, don’t you? You said you loved NYU, but I don’t want to assume. If you’d rather go to OSU or UCLA, I meant it when I said we can find a way - “

Blaine immediately shakes his head and reaches for him, his hands on Kurt’s waist. “I applied to those schools before we were back together, when I wasn’t sure where I was supposed to be,” he reminds him. “But now I know. It has to be New York, Kurt. I want New York. New York and NYU and you.”

Kurt’s smile is huge, his eyes wet with happy tears, and he flings his arms around him again with a giddy laugh Blaine is _so_ proud to have been able to conjure up in him. “Oh, Blaine, NYU! I’m so happy for you!” He presses a hard kiss to Blaine’s mouth and holds him tight.

“I’m so happy for _us_.” Blaine breathes in the scents of Kurt’s skin and the fabric softener they now share, wraps his arms around Kurt’s slim, strong body, and smiles against Kurt’s shoulder. His heart isn’t in his throat anymore; it’s soaring high in the air above him, doing spins and loops.

He might have been cut from NYADA. He might have lost the love of his life for a while. He might have had to retreat back home with his tail between his legs to figure out his life, but he did get his feet back under him. Coming back to Lima was only a pause, not an ending.

He might be on a slightly different path than he’d planned a year ago, but this one is still going _forward_. It’s still with Kurt.

It’s still everything he wants.

And he did it himself.

“We’re going back to New York,” Blaine whispers against Kurt’s shoulder, proud of himself, proud of them, proud that just because he stumbled and fell it doesn’t mean he had to stay there on the ground.

Kurt pulls back and kisses him again, this time so very softly, his lips lingering on Blaine’s like a promise and an expression of gratitude wrapped up together. “We’re going back to New York,” he repeats on a joy-filled sigh, his eyes so bright and blue. He sounds so satisfied, so steady, so certain of them both and everything they want. “And this time we’re going to do it right.”

Blaine knows he might have once heard that phrase and felt the pressure to be perfect, to keep up, not to fail again. But now he knows it just means all he has to do is keep trying. They both will. And that will make their future absolutely fantastic.

“You’re right,” he says to Kurt, mirroring his husband’s smile and his kiss and all of the love he sees pouring out of him. “This time we will.”

**Author's Note:**

> I am spoiler-free to the end. Please don't spoil me for anything coming ahead.


End file.
